Pope Francis praises Junipero Serra as U.S. 'founding father'

Los Angeles Times ^ | 5-3-15 | Harriet Ryan

[afraidfortherepublic]

Pope Francis weighed in on a thorny topic in California history Saturday when he spoke at length at a Rome Mass about Father Junipero Serra, the controversial California mission founder set to become America's first Latino saint later this year.

Addressing an audience that included many American priests, including Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, the pope referred to the 18th century Franciscan priest as “one of the founding fathers of the United States” and praised his willingness to abandon the comforts and privileges of his native Spain to spread the Christian message in the New World.

I wonder if today we are able to respond with the same generosity and courage to the call of God,” Francis said during a homily at Rome’s American seminary, the Pontifical North American College.

Francis will formally declare Serra a saint in September during the Washington, D.C., leg of his first visit to the United States. Although the Vatican has canonized Americans before, Serra will be the first saint canonized on U.S. soil.

In California, Serra has been criticized by native American activists for his role in a Spanish colonial system that mistreated and displaced indigenous people, and some have accused him of forcing people to convert to Catholicism. The state Senate voted last month to replace a statue of Serra in the U.S. Capitol with astronaut Sally Ride.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Thank you for a voice of reason amongst the barbarians.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Thank you for your contribution.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Didn’t he write the Declaration of Independence? /s

[Slyfox]

Theodore Maynard wrote a very nice biography on Fr. Serra.

[Salvation]

Good post. Thanks.

[Teacher317]

Like it or not, he introduced European Christian culture in California as much as the Puritans did in New England. Just the way it was.

That's great, but like it or not, the Founders were so named because they Founded a Constitutional Republic by Declaring Independence from the global superpower of the day, risked theirs lives and treasure and sacred honor, won the war against all odds, and then drafted a document that is one of the 3 most important and influential writings in the history of mankind, while also refusing to be named kings of the new nation, instead sticking to their principles of limited government.

THAT'S what a Founder is, not just any missionary successfully spreading The Word in new places on this continent.

[Slyfox]

One of Fr. Serra's last donkey rides traveling between San Francisco and San Diego, thinking of the bone-jarring trip ahead of him, he put his hands on his back and stretched it and said, "I wish I could fly."

A few years ago they put out an airmail stamp dedicated to his memory.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Fray Junipero Serra in Statuary Hall as part of the California exhibit.

[Falconspeed]

I pray to Father Serra every day and attend mass at the Mission in Ventura, Serra’s #9. Pope Francis is doing the same thing as Pope John Paul II: to promote Catholic culture. JP II was super smooth and Francis is clumsy and goofy. I miss Benedict XVI.

[ansel12]

I wouldn’t say that he had the effect on his Spanish colonies as the Puritans did on New England.

Mexico never became anything like New England, California was just as lousy as the rest of Mexico until the Americans came in and created it as a great state.

[The Cuban]

Wow. That is the most obtuse response to my comment.

[ansel12]

The guy had nothing to do with the United States and never set foot in it.

He was a part of the ugly Spanish/Catholic empire, which gave us the hell of Mexico and Latin America.

[Mrs. Don-o]

All the men who organized missions were called "fundadores" (founders) -- so Serra was legitimately a Founding Father of California.

The fact that he financially supported George Washington and American Independence earns him an honorary place with the American Founding Fathers as well, in my humble opinion.

[dalereed]

the pope can go pound sand and keep his sorry backside in Rome!!!

[pleasenotcalifornia]

St. Herman Seminary on Kodiak is great.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

There was nothing especially ugly about the Spanish Empire, during the time. It was AFTER the Mexicans broke away (and gutted the power of the Church while they were at it) that Central America started the tailspin that it’s still in today.

[bboop]

I love the California Missions. Those padres prayed over the ground as they built them, a day’s walk apart. The San Gabriel Mission, here in LA near Pasadena, sent gold to George Washington to help him at Valley Forge!!

[bboop]

Yes, we studied the Missions and Father Serra and carved ‘our’ missions out of Ivory soap!

[ansel12]

Thank God for America, the Spanish areas of the new world have never reached a level of quality.

[The_Reader_David]

Conversion of the Native Alaskans — a lot of Aleuts attribute their ancestral Orthodoxy to St. Herman, and he laid the foundations for the later conversions among the Tlingit and the Yupik, analogous to Junipero Serra’s role in converting the natives in California to Latin Christianity. It’s not like Serra got lots of Spaniards to move here creating a significant Spanish population.